Where Has all the Bob gone?

Bob the Builder has gone MIA. For his party, John Michael decided to go with a Bob the Builder theme which I encouraged, thinking that there would be Bob themed items a plenty when I scoured the Dollar Stores and Discount party places. Nope, nada, nothing, nary a Bob to be found anywhere. I finally located a sheet of Bob stickers which I used sparingly and we improvised for the rest of the party.

I would say the party was a roaring success, though. He had his buddies Stephen and Jimmy from church and Noah from across the street and of course David and Noah and Justus who we happened to have for respite today so they were already here. As the guests gathered, I turned on a Bob DVD and set up the various train sets on the living room floor. When it appeared that there were more big kids glued to the tv screen than party guests, I shooed them all outside for some games.


JT had buried a bunch of little Tonka die cast construction vehicles in the sandbox and each boy had a chance to dig one up for keepers. JT made it tough! On a couple of occasions the moms had to put shovel to sand and make some "suggestions" to little guys coming up short. Then we threw all the balls in the trampoline and Ben led them in some group activities. That was followed by dump truck races in which each boy had to put 3 balls in his dump truck and race across the yard without losing them. David came up with the ingenious idea that if he crammed his balls three across they would jam together and not roll out. He won the Genius of the Day award. While the boys played on the swing set, Ben helped them out with his Pin the Tools on the Bob game. He had drawn a wonderful Bob portrait and cut out various parts of his costume from construction paper for the boys to try to match up with the picture. Then all the kids got to have their pictures taken with Bob!

As if all that wasn't enough, the boys were ushered out front where they each received a bucket containing their very own tape measure, work gloves and a paint brush. (Each bucket was labeled with the boys' names and adorned with one precious Bob sticker.) They got to put the brushes to immediate use on murals I had drawn of Bob and friends. The gloves came in handy too!
Then as I prepared the cake and accessories they all chowed down on watermelon. The cake was another cake-tastrophe turned genius. Adora baked 3 cakes for me last night which were to have been crafted into the shape and form of our friend Bob the Builder. When she pulled them out of the freezer this morning they were misshapen and a bit...well...let's just say they weren't usable for the task at hand. So Adora once again put spoon to bowl and churned out another sheet cake which came out of the oven with very little time to spare for decorating. My creative wheels began turning and I ended up scooping mounds of warm cake onto my decorator boards, then gave John Michael the Bob lego trucks and told him to have at it. At first he didn't understand. He was waiting to see how Bob's form was going to appear out of those mounds of cake under the skillful hand of his mom. But when he realized I wanted him to drive his trucks in the cake, he was in boy heaven. The whole deal turned out remarkably cute and the duplo holes in Lofty's head made great holders for the four candles.

As the boys ate watermelon they were once again under the tutelage of Benjamin who taught them his original birthday song sung to the Bob the Builder theme music. Cake, ice cream and presents finished off a successful party. Two parties down and 3 more to go this year!